ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the issue of the ‘denotified communities/tribes’. The first section traces the possible trajectory through which colonial government arrived at the draconian act. The second section delineates the act and its final manifestation through a series of amendments. The third section then looks at the policy response of the state post-independence and the abrogation of the act. The key issue that needs an immediate resolution is the recognition of the political rights of the communities and that the issue of the long-standing stigma just cannot be wished away with and papered over by offering a slew of so-called developmental schemas.
